it develops
beyond all recognition. When I was a boy I knew the value in
exchange of every marble in my village, and this practice of valuing
became a subconscious habit until, so long as I remained in
business, I always had an intuitive perception of the real and not
the face value of any article.

The young man who will walk through life developing the capacity for
determining values, and then correcting his judgments by his
information, is the man who will succeed in business.

2. But supposing that a young man has acquired this sense of
values, he may yet ruin himself before he comes to the fruition of
his talent if he will not practise economy. By economy I mean the
economic conduct of his business. Examine your profit and loss
account before you go out to conquer the financial world, and then
go out for conquest--if the account justifies the enterprise. Too
many men spend their time in laying down "pipe-lines" for future
profits which may not arrive or only arrive for some newcomer who
has taken over the business. There is nothing like sticking to one
line of business until you have mastered it. A man who has learned
how to conduct a single industry at a profit has conquered the
obstacles which stand in the way of success in the larger world of
enterprise.

3. Do not try to cut with too wide a swath. This last rule is the
most important of all. Many promising young men have fallen into
ruin from the neglect of this simple principle. It is so easy for
premature ambition to launch men out into daring schemes for which
they have neither the resources nor the experience. Acquire the
knowledge of values, practise economy, and learn to read the minds
of men, and your technique will then be perfected and ready for use
on wider fields. The instinct for values, the habit of economy, the
technique of business, are only three forms of the supreme quality
of that judgment which is success.

For these reasons it is the first L10,000 which counts. There is the
real struggle, the test of character, and the warranty of success. Youth
and strength are given us to use in that first struggle, and a man must
feel those early deals right down to the pit of his stomach if he is
going to be a great man of business. They must shake the very fibre of
his being as the conception of a great picture shakes an artis